


cry for everything bad that's ever happened

by nirvanabrook



Category: IT (1990), IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1990s, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Athlete Eddie Kaspbrak, Beards (Relationships), Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier Are Best Friends, Beverly Marsh Lives With Her Aunt, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gay, Gen, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Internalized Homophobia, Kay McCall Has Diabetes, Kay McCall is Black, LGBTQ Themes, Lesbian, Lesbian Beverly Marsh, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mutual Pining, Only mild tho, Popular Beverly Marsh, Popular Richie Tozier, Queer Themes, Racism, Richie Tozier Has ADHD, Slow Burn, bc eddie and richie are dumbasses, bc there's gonna be a lot, i love them a lot, idk how to not write angst tbh, that's just self projection babyyy, will use tws as they come up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:41:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23783320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirvanabrook/pseuds/nirvanabrook
Summary: Derry, Maine was not a good town to be gay in. Even in the mid-90s when homosexuality was starting to be more accepted and less taboo, Derry was definitely behind on the times. Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh were going to be considered taboo, too taboo, by the town of Derry if anyone ever found out they were both gay. So, as a way to not make anyone suspect anything, the two best friends decide to fake date each other; to become beards for each other. It's great until they both get intense crushes on people and don't know what to do about them.
Relationships: Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier, Beverly Marsh/Kay McCall, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Patricia Blum Uris/Stanley Uris
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	cry for everything bad that's ever happened

**Author's Note:**

> this was originally gonna be a twitter au, but then i realized it'd just be better for me to make it a fic. bev is a lesbian, richie is gay. they're the bestest friends which is why they decided to become each other's beards. there's gonna be quite a bit of homophobia, a lot of it internalized. there's also gonna be racism towards mike and kay. richie and bev are kind of popular along with their friends a little bit. they're all homies. also, this takes place in the 1990s. and there's other stuff in the tags. 
> 
> if you wanna listen to the playlist i made for this, [here it is.](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0fBLDqglkmpS4pHRTw7T4J?si=OdtajfcuTw6KLQlC-mVvJg)
> 
> (title is from the le tigre song of the same name)

“See ya later, I love you!” Richie said to his parents as he began to rush out the door. He grabbed his backpack and his favorite jacket, which was a green and yellow windbreaker, and walked out of the house. He saw his best friend/fake girlfriend Beverly Marsh sitting in her car. It was a green pickup truck, and she was so in love with it. 

"It's about time!" Bev exclaimed jokingly as Richie got in the passenger seat. 

"Sorry! I was looking in the mirror and just couldn't take my eyes off of the sexy beast in the reflection." Bev punched his arm and laughed. She started to drive to Derry High School. Richie decided to look through the collection of cassette tapes that Bev kept in her car. He picked up Weezer's self-titled blue album and put it in the player.

"I didn't know I had that," said Bev.

"It's mine. I put it in here." He grinned at her. She chuckled.

"Of course you did." 

Richie sang along to the words while tapping. He wasn't much of a singer, but he had a decent voice. It didn't matter to him whether it was good or not, though, he just enjoyed singing along to the music he liked. Bev couldn't help but join in and sing the few songs she knew. 

They pulled up to Derry High School and parked in their usual parking space. They sat for a moment, not in a rush to get out of the car. In fact, Richie thought about what would stop them from skipping school right now? But he knew his parents would find out one way or another, so he wouldn't bother.

"You ready to be straight again today," Bev asked. Richie snorted.

"No, but let's go anyways." He got out of the car and almost tripped. Bev laughed at him only to be met with a middle finger. Then, Richie walked to the driver's side and opened the door for Bev. 

"M'lady," he said. 

"Why, thank you, kind sir," she replied with a smile as she got out of the car. Richie put his arm around her as they walked into the school. He hated this act, he really did, and so did Bev, but they would both rather be in a fake relationship and hate it than be exposed for both being gay and get beat up and insulted.

"Y'know," whispered Richie, "I don't think I'd rather have anyone else be my fake girlfriend than you, Beverly."

"Yeah? Well, I’d probably go with, like, Stan or something, but you work, too," Bev said jokingly. “No, I’m kidding. I think you’re the best boyfriend, fake or not, someone could have.” Richie grinned at that and kissed her cheek. 

They parted ways to go to their lockers. The lockers were arranged in alphabetical order, so they weren't very close to each other. Beverly's locker was, however, close to Kay McCall's. Kay was one of her best friends aside from Richie, and Bev really liked her. But, she could never tell Kay that she liked her, and it sucked. All she wanted to do was tell Kay how her laugh could brighten even the darkest alley; how cute it was when she scrunched up her nose when she focused on something or laughed; how she was possibly the most beautiful girl, both appearance- and personality-wise, that Bev had ever met.

But she couldn't. She couldn't risk it all and ruin everything. And she couldn't do that to Richie, who definitely wasn't ready for people to find out.

"Hey!" greeted Kay.  _ Speak of the devil _ , thought Bev. 

"Oh! Uh, hi," Bev replied nervously. She watched as Kay opened her locked. “How are you?”

“Exhausted,” Kay said with a small laugh. She opened her locker and looked at Bev. “I stayed up all night writing. I got so lost in it that I didn’t even realize it’d hit 4 a.m.” She put her backpack in her locker and got out the books that she needed.

“Well, whatever it is that you wrote, I can’t wait to read it when you’re finished,” Bev told her. She felt her heart begin to race and butterflies in her stomach. Kay made her nervous, but in a good way. They both walked down the hall together.

“Please, you’re going to be the first one to read anything I write. You’ll get the first copy of any book I publish.”

“Isn’t the author supposed to have the first copy?” asked Bev. Kay smiled.

“Maybe, but I think my best friend should have it. I mean, I’ve read the book a million times because I  _ wrote _ it, so I had to have read it. Why not give my best friend the chance to be the first person to read it other than myself?” 

“I guess I can’t argue with that logic,” Bev said with a smile. She liked Kay so much. She was always mesmerized by the things Kay said and did. She was so talented and so smart and-

“Hey, babe,” Richie greeted them both with the cheesy grin that he wore all the time. The grin showed off his rainbow braces that he’d had for almost a year. He felt insecure about them when he first got them, but he learned to like them as he got complimented on them.

“Hi,” Bev replied. Richie kissed her on the cheek. 

“Hey, Rich,” said Kay with a friendly smile. 

“Hey, Kay-Kay! What’s up?” Kay rolled her eyes and laughed at the silly nickname.

“Nothing much, I’m just tired.” 

“Mmm, me too,” Richie replied. 

\---

It was lunchtime, and the trio sat with their other friends Bill, Mike, Stan, Patty, and Audra. Stan and Patty were dating, and they were too busy being cheesy and romantic with each other to acknowledge anyone else. They were such a cute couple. 

There’s a beep at their table - Kay was checking her blood sugar. They were all used to her checking her sugar by now; used to all the beeps. She was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was eight years old. She’d had it for almost ten years now. She was used to getting questions about it, and she was asked so many when she joined the friend group. 

Her glucose meter read: 217. It was high, which wasn’t abnormal for her. 

“You high?” Bev asked. Bev was always there when Kay ranted about her diabetes, and she knew so much about the disease. Kay nodded her head.

“You’re stoned right now?” asked Richie genuinely. Some of the group laughed.

“No, Richie, my  _ blood sugar _ is high,” Kay said. Richie had a face of realization, his mouth forming an “O” shape. 

“I’m an  _ idiot _ ,” he said with a laugh. 

“Well, you’re  _ my _ idiot,” replied Bev. She put her head on Richie’s shoulder. 

Their relationship was fake, and the feelings they acted like they had for each other was fake, too, but they genuinely loved each other. Not in a romantic way, but they were really close. It wasn’t awkward for them to fake it. They had always been kind of intimate in a way since they were childhood friends. 

Richie had said once that he felt like he and Bev were platonic soulmates. He genuinely believed in fate and all that stuff, and he felt like soulmates were real, but they weren’t necessarily romantic. Bev thought that was really sweet. 

The pair was always talked about deep things about life and the universe, and they told each other secrets that they wouldn’t tell anyone else, like that they were both gay. Beverly came out to Richie first. She got a crush on Patty, and she couldn’t take not telling anyone about it. She told Richie, and it felt really good to get it off of her chest. Richie was surprised and started crying a little bit because  _ he was gay, too _ . What a coincidence! Two best friends both being gay.

They started fake dating when he started hanging out with Connor Bowers, Henry Bowers’ cousin. Henry had a thing against Richie and threatened to tell everyone he was gay if he didn’t leave Connor alone. So he did. He realized he should probably find a girlfriend as a cover-up, and who better than his lesbian best friend, Beverly Marsh? Bev didn’t want suspicion either, so she agreed. They were dating ever since. As much as it sucked, as much as it hurt, they knew they had to do it. Derry was not a good town to be LGBT in.

Since then, they talked about their crushes that would never become more, Bev with Patty and then Kay, and Richie with Connor (for about a week), then Stan for a little bit, but he got over that. They both wondered if they’d ever end up in any relationships before high school ended, but they knew that was unlikely. For now, fake dating each other would do. 

**Author's Note:**

> if you wanna, follow me on twitter @nirvanabrook2 ! i tweet a lot about IT there (mostly richie bc he's my mf babie) and i have an au that im slow with updating.


End file.
